THE INFLUENCE OF DIAGNOSTIC CLARITY AND PREJUDICIAL ATTITUDES ON CLINICAL JUDGMENT BIASES
Open Access
- Author:
- Hieger, Brad
- Graduate Program:
- Counseling Psychology
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- March 06, 2007
- Committee Members:
- Beverly Vandiver, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Thomas D Borkovec, Committee Member
Robert B Slaney, Committee Member
Kurt M Gehlert, Committee Member - Keywords:
- racial bias
bias
clinical judgment
racism
prejudice - Abstract:
- The author applied the aversive racism theory (Gaertner & Dovidio, 2000) to the area of clinical judgment. The intent was to examine whether counselors are prone to racially biased clinical judgments and, if so, under which clinical conditions. The first hypothesis was that racial bias would be most evident under diagnostic conditions that were ambiguous and when the race of the counselor and the race of the client in a clinical vignette were dissimilar; racial bias was defined as overpathologizing clients through low prognostic functioning ratings and high ratings of the client’s severity. It was further hypothesized that underpathologization bias, defined as higher prognostic functioning and lower ratings of the client’s severity, would be most likely evidenced by multiculturally sensitive participants rating racially dissimilar clients; in other words, participants would overcompensate so as to avoid the possibility that they would be perceived as racially biased. Towards this end, clinical vignettes were given to a sample of 66 graduate students and professionals within counseling psychology to examine the influences of reported client race, clarity of diagnostic condition, participants’ levels of prejudice, and counselor-client racial similarity on participants’ clinical judgments. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to test the interactions of participants’ levels of prejudice and the racial similarity of diagnostic conditions on prognostic and severity ratings. An analysis of variance was also conducted to evaluate the effects of diagnostic clarity and racial similarity on participants’ ratings of the clinical vignette’s severity. The results of the study did not support the hypotheses. Regression analyses revealed that there were no significant increases or decreases in ratings of diagnostic severity and prognosis as a result of racial similarity, diagnostic clarity, and participants’ levels of prejudice. Limitations of this study, including the sample’s homogeneity and their response homogeneity, as well as suggestions for future research are provided.